On the use of models to estimate the total risk of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

Abstract

The estimation of the total risk of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) was introduced in the first recommendations on the prevention of coronary heart disease in clinical practice in 1994 published by a joint task force of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) and the European Society of Hypertension. 1 Nowadays in all guidelines on the prevention of ASCVD the use of standardized risk estimation systems to stratify the asymptomatic, apparently healthy adult population in categories of risk is recommended. The purposes of doing so are multiple:

Molecular imaging of active coronary micro-calcification with 18F-NaF and PET: emergence of a new biomarker of the vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque?

“…In the last decade, the assessment of coronary artery calcifications (CAC) with non-contrast CT, as a surrogate marker of coronary atherosclerotic burden, has emerged as a unique tool to improve cardiovascular risk stratification beyond the scope of the traditional Framingham risk score in primary preventive risk care. 6,7 Although the assessment of CAC or CTcoronary angiography-determined calcified and noncalcified coronary plaque burdens may improve cardiovascular risk prediction, they cannot provide information of CAD activity and/or vulnerable plaque formation. In this direction, PET in conjunction with F-sodium fluoride ( 18 F-NaF) has been demonstrated to identify active calcification and/or microcalcifications of the CAD process.…”